


The stranger

by darkmoore



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Supernatural
Genre: Chuck Shurley is God, Episode Fix-it, Episode Related, Episode: s10e22 Aloha (Goodbye), Fix-It, Gen, Religious Discussion, x-over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24042574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmoore/pseuds/darkmoore
Summary: What would have happened if Chuck (God) had heard Steve's "Take me, not him" and decided to have a little chat with Steve? SPN/H50 x-over
Comments: 15
Kudos: 67





	The stranger

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be my entry for the April amnesty challenge over at h/c BINGO. I wrote it by hand, into my notebook and then completely forgot to type it up and post it. My dear friend Brumeier did beta on it last night and helped me with its many issues, and now here it is. 
> 
> Thank you Bru! I'm so grateful for your help.

Steve bowed his head and folded his hands as he sat in the small hospital chapel. His hands were still sticky with Danny’s blood and Steve couldn’t shake the images that threatened to overwhelm him. 

Danny, wrists bound above his head and shackled to the ceiling. 

Danny, shot in the chest, drowning in his own blood. 

Danny, being wheeled into the ER, looking more dead than alive. 

It made Steve’s stomach roil and his chest ache with fear. It wasn’t right. It just wasn’t right that Danny had been hurt – again – because Steve had messed up. It was his fault that Danny’s life was in danger. It should be him, not Danny, in the OR fighting for his life. Steve who had months of pain and rehab ahead of him if he survived. Steve, not Danny. It should never have been Danny. 

“You want to take somebody, take me. Not him. Take me.” Steve voiced his thoughts out loud, trying to bargain with a God he hadn’t believed in for a long time now. And really, why would God listen to him now, of all times?

The air around Steve changed and time seemed to freeze as a guy suddenly appeared on the pew next to him. Steve startled but didn’t seem to be able to do much else besides stare at the stranger. 

He appeared to be Steve’s age, maybe slightly older, and looked harmless enough in his maroon sweat jacket and washed-out jeans. Steve didn’t recognize him.

The stranger had wavy brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and the most unusual eyes Steve had ever seen. Eyes that were soft with kindness and crinkled as he smiled at Steve. Everything about him was so non-threatening and peaceful that Steve didn’t even consider drawing his weapon on him. Instead he just stared.

“How about I don’t take either of you, Steve?” the stranger asked quietly. “I’ve made sure you survived this far, I’m not gonna abandon you now. You’re among my favorites, you know?”

Steve stared some more. Anger was burning in his chest, hot and all consuming. Who was this lunatic and how had he found Steve?

“Is this some kind of joke to you? Who the hell are you? Who sent you? What do you want?” Steve asked. He was still angry and confused and he needed answers. He wanted to reach for his service weapon. But found he couldn’t.

Steve’s heart started to race and he tried to struggle, tried to _move_ towards the stranger, to wrap his hands around the guy’s throat and demand answers. Demand to be set free, but no words came and his body wouldn’t obey him. 

And there was nothing he could do. There were no locks to pick, no ropes to cut, no restraints to get out of. Just a feeling like his limbs had been filled with lead and his body was wrapped secure in a warm blanket. Gentle, but inescapable. 

“I’m the one you were trying to bargain with,” the stranger said evenly, not a hint of ridicule in his voice. He didn’t seem to notice Steve’s agitation. His distress.

“And of course it’s not a joke. I know you’re worried about Danny. I promise, you don’t need to be. Everything is going to be just fine.”

“And you know that because you’re God,” Steve said incredulously. He needed to get away from this lunatic. 

The stranger shrugged and smiled again. “Yeah. I’d prefer you call me Chuck, though. I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I like watching you, you know? I’ve made sure you made it out alive of those ridiculous situations you keep putting yourself into. I’m not gonna stop now. So, I’m telling you, Danny will live. You won’t lose him to that bullet wound.” 

Steve glowered at the stranger. That guy was completely insane!

“You’re crazy,” Steve said, anger rising in his chest once more. “Tell me who you talked with. Tell me how you know all these things. Who told you all of this? Is this about Daiyu Mei? About Doris? _Tell me!”_

“I already told you, Steve.”

“Yeah, right. You know everything because you’re God.” The anger in Steve’s chest mixed with fresh panic. “What did you do, huh? Did you break out of the psych ward? Is that it? You’re completely insane if you think I believe that you’re … God.” 

The guy – Chuck – shrugged again. “You’re free to believe whatever you want to believe. I gave you free will for a reason. A word of advice, though? You won’t lose Danny from this, today, but you very well might lose him from running away and leaving your ohana behind, the way you’ve planned. Trust me on this, it’s not gonna solve your problems.”

“You don’t know anything about my problems,” Steve snapped. The guy was clearly insane. He hadn’t given Steve any answers, hadn’t risen to the bait when Steve had asked about his mother and Daiyu Mei; instead he insisted on talking about Danny. 

Danny who was still in surgery. Danny who might still die, despite what the nutjob was saying. He wanted to grab the man and shake him, make him tell the truth, make him tell what he really wanted from Steve, but he still couldn’t move. It was like in one of those nightmares where you tried your best to run, but the ground was like molasses and you couldn’t move an inch. 

And maybe this was all a dream after all?

Maybe Steve could try to wake himself up? 

Chuck seemed to be completely oblivious to what was going on with Steve. 

Either that or he honestly didn’t care. 

“I know that you were deeply hurt by both your parents’ deaths. I know you feel like you need to run away from Hawaii to find peace, but Steve, trust me on this one, running away from your soulmate will only make things worse. Don’t worry about your parents, they’re fine.” 

Steve took a deep breath and tried to get his racing heart under control. He needed to find a way out of this situation, somehow. Maybe it would be best to play along. 

“Right, so Danny is my soulmate and my parents are fine?” Steve repeated sarcastically. “Next you’re gonna tell me they’re in heaven.”

“As a matter of fact, they are. Yes, even Doris. There is a lot about your mother you don’t know yet. Yes, her life choices were not always smart ones, but overall she did just fine. I’m not actually as much of a judgmental asshole as some … scriptures make me out to be.” He shrugged again. “I stopped being a helicopter parent a long time ago.”

Steve stared at him. Was this guy for real?

“I know you’re confused. I know you’re scared. But I promise you, you don’t need to be afraid, Steve. You are allowed to be happy, you know? Stop being so hard on yourself and trust your heart.” 

For a moment Steve wondered what would happen if he believed Chuck. Believed that the guy who had shown up out of nowhere and who told him that he was God and that Doris and his dad were in heaven was really who he said he was. 

That was a thought that was scarier than the rest of the situation he found himself in. 

God didn’t exist, did he?

“Oh, that reminds me,” Chuck reached over and placed his right hand on Steve’s chest. Steve still couldn’t move, couldn’t keep Chuck from touching him and the realization sent another jolt of panic through him. 

What was happening to him?

There was a warm, bright light where Chuck touched Steve’s chest and something inside him unclenched. The constant, dull ache Steve had carried around with him for what felt like forever seeped away. 

Steve looked at Chuck in awe. There was something ethereal about him, something that hadn’t been there before. 

Clearly this had to be a dream.

As it was, it was one of the crazier ones. 

“I’ve taken care of that radiation poisoning and the nasty little side effects it had on your body. Your transplant shouldn’t give you any more trouble, either. I’ll check in on Danny later and see what I can do about his knee, while I make sure he recovers a little faster from that bullet wound,” Chuck said conversationally.

“Why? Why are you doing this?” Steve asked. He couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening to him. He couldn’t risk believing anything that had happened within the last couple of minutes. 

Chuck smiled at him again and there was so much kindness all around him it made Steve’s chest feel tight with emotion. 

“Because I can,” he said, and shrugged a little. “You are loved, Steve, whether you want to believe it or not. And you don’t have to do this alone. Any of it. There are others here to help you. Let them help. You’re drowning in shame and guilt, and I’m telling you, there’s no need for that. Whatever you think it is you have to atone for, whatever it is you’re running from, please stop. You’re forgiven. You have always been forgiven. There is no reason for you to abandon your family. Your ohana. You can have the life you wanted; you just need to choose to go for it.”

“But what-,” Steve broke off when Chuck vanished in a swirl of gentle light. 

And just like that, Steve was able to move again.

He Jumped up and looked around, searching for any trace of the man who had insisted he was God. 

“This is stupid,” Steve murmured. 

Surely he’d just drifted off. There was no way any of this had really happened. It had just been a very weird dream, brought on by worry and exhaustion. Because Steve was scared for Danny. Because he desperately wanted someone to come and tell him it would all be okay. 

Steve rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. 

His breath caught and he looked at his hands, now clean of the blood that had stained them just minutes earlier. 

The symbolism wasn’t lost on Steve. 

Chuck had taken the blood off of Steve’s hands, both literally as well as figuratively when he had told Steve he was forgiven. 

Steve’s legs suddenly felt weak and he sank back onto the pew he had just vacated, shaking at the enormity of what he now knew hadn’t been a dream at all. He covered his eyes with his hands and allowed himself to cry.


End file.
